MORMONS, GREEN JELL-O & OTHER DRUGS

If there's something non-believers know about Mormons, it's that they
treat their bodies like a temple. And that caffeine, alcohol, and
drugs have no place in an individual's house of the holy. So the news
that Utah, where 70 percent of residents accept the Plates of Nephi
as scripture, leads the country in use of anti-depressants (not to
mention sugary green Jell-O), was met by many with surprise -- or
smug satisfaction.

It needn't surprise. Americans may worship more gods and monsters
than the Greeks, but we share a national devotion: weird hypocrisy
about drug use. When Mormons shrink in horror from Starbucks but pop
Paxil like Pez, they're indulging the same kind of mystification that
decides U.S. drug law. Or, for that matter, that can lead pot smokers
who say they self-medicate to denounce those "drones" on artificial
anti-depressants.